Television cutaways like to catch Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry. Sitting. Talking to assistants. Arguing with referees. Giving directions to his players.

He is quickly becoming the NBA’s newest coaching star, a man who has turned the fortunes of a franchise completely around.

And yet I’m shaking my head.

Here’s why. It wasn’t long ago when Gentry pretty much had to beg to get a call from the University of Colorado to be considered for its basketball coaching job. And he got no love. Now, he’s leading one of the hottest, toughest, best teams in the NBA.

What might have been if this man, a former CU assistant no less, had been given half a chance to become the next coach at Colorado? The Buffs were in a full-fledged search in 2007 after parting ways with Ricardo Patton.

I’ll tell you who’s not thinking about that.

Gentry.

His team is playing arguably the best basketball in the NBA and has earned a spot in the Western Conference Finals with a statement-making sweep of the four-time champion San Antonio Spurs. His coaching job has pretty much saved the job of Suns general manager, Steve Kerr. He has the run-and-gun Suns playing with grit and defense, two things that were in short supply in years past. And he has the unwavering support – and gratitude – of the biggest stars on the team. Two-time league MVP point guard Steve Nash recently told NBA.com, “We’re not here without Alvin.”

Not bad for a coach that was so easily dismissed by CU.

To review: Gentry, then a man of 27 years of coaching experience at the NBA and college levels, wanted the CU job. Really wanted it. He expressed his interest in every way he possibly could. And despite all of that, CU passed on opportunity after opportunity to at the very least sit down and talk with the man. This is what Gentry said at the time when it was apparent Colorado wasn’t going to give him the time of day.

“I hadn’t heard anything from (CU),” Gentry said. “That’s kind of where it is. It doesn’t matter if I have interest. They don’t have interest in me. Obviously, I’ve showed I have interest. But I haven’t heard from them, so they’re going in another direction.”

That direction was zeroing in on Nuggets assistant and former Metro State coach Mike Dunlap, then Jeff Bzdelik, which resulted in a bunch of losing seasons before we’ve now arrived at Tad Boyle. And I love Tad Boyle.

But what if CU had given Gentry a shot?

He was a graduate assistant at CU in 1977-78 and a full-fledged CU assistant from 1981-85. While on staff, he had a big hand in recruiting Jay Humphries and Matt Bullard, two of the best players in the program’s history. Gentry also assisted Larry Brown at Kansas from 1985-88, where he recruited a tall star player from Cherry Creek named Mark Randall, who went on to play in the NBA.

None of that matters much now. But it is interesting to watch him flourish while CU once again starts over. In Phoenix, Gentry has been a calming, vital influence. There was a point at which the only talk surrounding the Suns was about which star was going to jump ship first, or be traded; and would Kerr, be shown the door?

That’s all gone. In its place is a team that has healed, has come together, and looks like a very real threat to reach the NBA Finals. Through it all, Gentry’s shown the smarts and guile of the game’s best tacticians, and a firm but respectful hand toward his players that the best coaches are able to master. Colorado needed all of those things.

Gentry recruited Grant Hill to Phoenix, and that’s paying dividends. Reserve point guard Goran Dragic has made astronomical strides on Gentry’s watch. Forward Jared Dudley is quickly developing into one of the league’s most versatile, productive, hard-working and energetic players off the bench. Jason Richardson has raised his play to maybe the highest level of his career.

And Amar’e Stoudemire, once so disillusioned by previous Suns head coaches that his departure from the organization seemed inevitable, is now fully on board with the program under Gentry and is back strongly considering a return to the Suns once free agency begins this summer.

“(It’s) his character, his aura,” Stoudemire told the Arizona Republic. “It’s hard not to get along with him. He’s a funny guy. He’s smart. He knows the game of basketball.” Stoudemire added he was finally “under a coach who really wants to teach the game, and that has been great for me.”

There is more to every story, to be sure. I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why CU distanced itself so quickly and coldly from Gentry three years ago. Or maybe there isn’t. Either way, Gentry has landed on his feet. He might have been a smash success at CU. He definitely is a smash success in the Valley of the Sun.

Carmelo Anthony calmly let that sentence flow from his mouth about 30 minutes after the Jazz surgically removed all of the fun out of what most thought was supposed to be another Nuggets win in Game 2 of the first round series between the two teams on Monday night.

But here’s actually what’s started now: Adversity.

And this really is the biggest storyline for the Nuggets in this postseason. Specifically, how will they deal with it? A positive answer to that question can mean a significant playoff run is in store. A negative answer could mean the end of the road in the first round.

The fact of the matter is, over the last month this team hasn’t handled adversity as well as anyone would like – in small or large situations. In Game 2, the Nuggets simply melted down late in the contest.

In the fourth quarter, from 1:44 to 25.4 here are the Nuggets possessions:

To recap: Nuggets were 1-of-2 from the free throw line, committed three fouls and turned the ball over once.

“We’ll take all of that,” deadpanned Utah guard Deron Williams.

There is a general lack of mental toughness this year, and that just wasn’t the case last season. The 2008-09 team took no prisoners, dished out the pain, imposed its will on the opponent and steamrolled through every challenge. There was no situation too tough, no setback to difficult to overcome. There was a steely-eyed focused mentality that got them over every hurdle and nearly into the NBA Finals.

Instead, this team often unravels when times get tough. They do not consistently execute in pressure situations. They frequently miss assignments on the defensive end. They listen to coach Adrian Dantley about half the time, and none of those things are good enough to maintain success. Especially in the playoffs.

That said, Billups’ decision not to give the ball to Ty Lawson in the final seconds will be a hot topic, but probably shouldn’t be.

Dantley inserted Lawson into the game with six seconds left in order to get the ball up the court quickly. Billups, however, never gave Lawson the ball claiming he wasn’t sure what was supposed to take place, only that “I didn’t know what was going on.” Whether he did or didn’t, Billups has vetoed some of coach George Karl’s decisions in the past, so this shouldn’t come as a shock. As maybe the NBA’s best leader and one of the league’s most consistent winners, he’s earned that latitude.

The only problem with it now is it continues to chip away at Dantley’s authority, and if the acting coach doesn’t at least have that, the Nuggets are going nowhere. Dantley’s decision-making can only be analyzed if the players carry out his wishes. And right now there is a clear belief among some of the players that they know just as much as he does. So his voice becomes easier to dismiss.

Just as winning streaks have raised the confidence of this team, losing streaks – and tough moments in pressurized games – seem to feed on themselves and get worse. One loss becomes two-of-three or five-of-six or three in a row. Issues like defensive focus are spoken about in the most comprehensive terms, but then they may or may not be carried out the next game night.

And there was a false sense of security out of Game 1. The Nuggets scored points and won, which temporarily masked the fact that they gave up a ton of points as well. In two games they have allowed 113.5 points per contest.

If they win this series playing that type of basketball, they’ll be out of the second round in five games, max. The Lakers are likely to be there, and if L.A. averages 113 points per game, vacation plans can be made for about nine days after the series starts. It’ll be over that fast.

But the Nuggets won’t even make that far unless they can address their biggest flaw – an unstable mindset. There is time to steer the ship in the right direction, but it has to be done now.

Late Thursday night, he became the second coach in Nuggets history to earn an All-Star coaching spot. Larry Brown (1977) was the first.

Karl clinched the coaching spot by virtue of Dallas’ loss to Phoenix on Thursday night. The Nuggets are assured of finishing with at least a tie for the second-best record in the conference, and since Lakers coach Phil Jackson cannot coach the game, having done so last season, Karl is in.

It is Karl’s fourth time coaching an All-Star game, and first since 1998.

Asked a week ago about the possibility, Karl said, “I think it’s an honor. It’s an arena that I’m glad I’ve done it. In a lot of ways I wish we could distribute it amongst all the coaches and give them the opportunity, because I think there’s a lot of great coaches that will never get to do that that should have that opportunity.”

It also means Karl will coach his star, Carmelo Anthony, in the game. When asked about being coached by Karl, Anthony joked “At least I know what time I’m coming in and out of the game.”

The Nuggets, going into tonight’s game against Oklahoma City, are 31-14, 3 ½ games behind the Lakers for first place in the Western Conference, and 1 ½ games ahead of the 30-16 Mavericks, who only have one more game this week, Saturday at home against Portland.

Denver clinched at least a tie, which means the coach who most recently walked the sidelines as an All-Star coach is eliminated. Dallas’ Rick Carlisle coached the Eastern Conference All-Stars in 2004 when he was with Indiana.

Karl, who is still without a contract extension, is the seventh-winningest coach in NBA history with 964 victories in 22 seasons. He has a streak of 17 straight seasons of .500 or better, and the Nuggets are the only team to never have finished below .500 since the inception of the Northwest Division in 2004-05.

Of all of the interesting/funny/maddening/perplexing things Warriors coach Don Nelson has done or said in an over three-decade long NBA coaching career, his continual disdain for a record he’ll have by March ranks among the most head-scratching.

But it also may rank as the sweetest.

Nelson loves to win basketball games. And he has done so to a level that will make him the winningest coach of all time this season.

Nelson stands 15 wins from the No. 1 spot in career coaching wins. He’s got 1,318. Yet, if he could magic-wand away about 100 victories he’d do it in a heartbeat to preserve Wilkens’ spot at the top of the list.

“I’d rather not hold the record, that’s for sure,” Nelson said. “I wish Lenny would have it for his lifetime. That would be great. I don’t think about it. You guys bring it up way too much. It’s not an important number to me at all.”

But…

“But winning is,” he said. “I do enjoy winning games.”

The ideal means more to him than the number. I get that. But maybe he just needs to look at the achievement differently. The number represents the ideal of winning. And it represents the fact he will have replicated that ideal, the one he loves most about competition in the NBA, more times than anyone else. That’s at the very least noteworthy.

“I’m going to continue to do my best I can to win games and to try to get my team into a winning team,” Nelson said. “But the record means very little to me. It just means I’ve been around for 35-40 years. That’s what it means.”

But of course that’s not true.

Coaching is a series of adaptations. Most coaches don’t get ready-made teams that are prepared to win year after year after year. There’s personnel decisions to be made, egos to be stroked, playing time to be dealt out in the most effective fashion, injuries to overcome, shift in conference power to navigate, scheduling quirks to get through, organization financial constraints to accommodate and live with, and numerous other factors that demoralize and derail many other coaches.

But for 31 years, Nelson has been able to get through it all. Though he doesn’t have a title, he’s been NBA Coach of the Year three times – no one in history has more. He’s taken three of the four franchises he’s coached to the playoffs at least four times, and he’s had to rebuild in every case. That’s worth celebrating.

Simply sticking around doesn’t breed success. The ability to make the right choices in the face of a thousand different obstacles, does.

And maybe that’s what’s worth smiling about. Wilkens and Nelson are good friends. Have been for years. Nelson does not want to displace a good friend. That’s both loyal and admirable. But it’s inevitable; 1,333 wins – and beyond – is Nelson’s destiny.

“It’ll be what it’ll be,” says Nelson.

Hopefully Nelson will allow it be a time to reflect and toast a career well done.

On Monday they will reunite with former teammate Allen Iverson, as he reunites himself with the Philadelphia crowd back as a member of the 76ers.

On Tuesday, in the second of a back-to-back set, Nuggets forward Joey Graham will be reunited with his brother, Stephen, who plays for the Bobcats. Additionally, Nuggets coach George Karl will be back in the house with his friend and fellow North Carolina alum, Larry Brown, coach of the Bobcats.

Rounding out the week is no, not Chauncey Billups’ return to Detroit – at least not his first – but Arron Afflalo’s first game back in the Motor City. He played the first two years of his career with the Pistons before being traded to the Nuggets last summer.

So it should be an emotional week for the Nuggets. But before we look forward to five days of Kleenex, let’s take a look back at how the 15-5 Nuggets got to this point…

Dec 1: Nuggets 135, Warriors 107
A game after the Nuggets were embarrassed at home by Minnesota, they came out with a new attitude and took advantage of a Golden State team that was playing the second of a back-to-back set. The game was over so quickly that Golden State coach Keith Smart removed his best player, guard Monta Ellis, with 6:02 left in the third and conceded the victory to the Nuggets. Carmelo Anthony (25 points, seven rebounds) and Chauncey Billups (22 points, eight assists) led seven Nuggets in double figures. Every single active player on the team scored at least four points.

Dec. 3: Nuggets 114, Heat 96
Dwyane Wade has never beaten the Nuggets in Denver and that streak continued as Miami was crushed at the Pepsi Center. Defensively, the Nuggets were stellar as they only allowed Wade (25 points) and Michael Beasley (17 points) to score in double figures. Wade is now 0-6 all-time in games against the Nuggets in the Mile High City. Anthony’s 22 points led the way, but Chris Andersen played a solid game with nine points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Dec. 5: Nuggets 106, Spurs 99
This was easily the team’s best, most significant performance of the week. The Nuggets had played largely inconsistent basketball on the road this season, losing four of five before a revival on Saturday night in the River City. The Nuggets buckled down on defense and rode Anthony’s hot hand to an impressive seven-point win against a team many believed passed Denver in the Western Conference with the offseason additions of Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess and DeJuan Blair. It was a solid start to a four-game road trip.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: CARMELO ANTHONY
Broken record? Yes. But he had to be. Anthony was named NBA Western Conference Player of the Month last week, and that alone will get you POW honors in this space. He stretched his streak of scoring 20 or more points per game with games of 25, 22 and 34 points during the week.

MOVE OF THE WEEK: KEEPING THE HEDGE
Tony Parker was all over the place. If the Nuggets wanted to win the game against the Spurs they had to stop Parker, who went wherever he wanted to in the first half. So what they did was turn up the pressure on the basketball and keep the hedge on the pick-and-roll. When Parker came off the screen the Nuggets basically soft-trapped him, pushing him back toward half court. It removed the dribble drive portion of Parker’s game and rendered him ineffective for much of the second half. With Parker out of the picture, the Nuggets were able to gain control of the game and walk out of the AT&T Center with a much-needed victory.

On draft night in June while Stephen Curry beamed from ear to ear, Ty Lawson was making his list and checking it twice. The 17 teams that passed on him were going to pay when he faced them. He’d punish them with points, assists, steals and spectacular plays. All designed to make them wonder what on earth they could have been thinking by going in a direction other than with him.

But between then and now an interesting thing happened – Lawson stopped caring.

While being picked in the high teens and immediately traded didn’t do wonders for his ego five months ago, it turns out the Denver Nuggets rookie point guard has found something better: Success and happiness.

And that’s priceless.

Just ask Curry.

His bank account is a bit bigger, but so are his stress levels. Golden State is as far away from the Nuggets in the standings as Curry was drafted (7th) ahead of Lawson (18th). On top of that, Curry, expected to do big things quickly (how ever fairly or unfairly) hasn’t delivered just yet.

He’s struggled with defense. His consistency ebbs and flows on offense. Golden State has had a dysfunctional start with finger-pointing between players, feuding between ex-forward Stephen Jackson and coach Don Nelson before the player was traded; and a budding star in guard Monta Ellis who before the season even began said he could not co-exist with Curry in the same backcourt.

And through all of that, the baby-faced kid from Davidson is supposed to learn and grow and become a true professional.

“I’m not happy with how things are going so far, right now anyway, the consistency of my game,” Curry said. “So, I’m just going to continue to work hard, work on that, and see what happens. My confidence is high. I just gotta try to keep my happiness level up with how we’re playing. It’s not there. We’re going to fight back. We’re not going to quit on the season or anything like that. But we have a long way to go.”

Meanwhile, Lawson has found that going later can have its privileges.

Outside of Carmelo Anthony’s MVP start to the season, Lawson has been the next-best story on the team. He has come from a rookie that wasn’t pegged for much playing time to a player that in the preseason veterans whispered to coach George Karl had to get on the court, to a player that has moved into the reserve point guard role previously occupied by an 11-year veteran.

Everywhere the Nuggets go, every new team the Nuggets face, Karl fields a bevy of the same questions all in effort to write the latest round of glowing stories about the impact Lawson has had on the team. It’s been so much that Karl joked he’d been told to stop gushing so much about him. And it’s just December.

Which brings us back to draft position and what it really means. In Lawson’s and Curry’s cases, it’s meant an early reversal of fortune.

“If you go to a team that’s not really winning, like the New Jersey Nets, they haven’t won a game yet. I might go crazy if I haven’t won a game. I’m a competitive person,” Lawson said. “I’m glad I’m on a team that’s winning like we are right now.”

Lawson’s words come with smiles.

Many of Curry’s come with sighs.

“We have some ups and downs as a team right now,” Curry said. “We come out some games really competitive, getting where we want to be on the court, making you feel real comfortable. And some nights we really don’t have it and get blown out like (Tuesday against the Nuggets). So, we just got to stay focused on getting better every day.”

Working in Curry’s favor is an energetic interim coach, Keith Smart, who keeps sunshine and rainbows present in a season full of storm clouds.

“This is not an easy league for a rookie to come in,” Smart said. “Even LeBron (James) struggled when he came in, but of course he’s a super talent. But young players are going to struggle because they have to go through all of the ins and outs of the NBA – how they prepare, how they deal with a back-to-backs. So he’s on track. It’s going to be tough on him for a moment, but he’s still going to be a good player in our league.”

If certain greatness has a size and shape, it might look something like Andrew Bynum.

Nuggets coach George Karl turned on video tape L.A. Lakers center and nearly fell out of his chair.

“On video he looks so big,” Karl said of the 7-foot, 285-pound Bynum. “I don’t know if he grew. He’s not Shaq-like, but he’s big.”

But size and shape don’t make the player. The NBA makes you earn greatness. And Bynum, who is not-so-quietly decimating every opponents’ low post during the Lakers’ 7-3 start, is off to the best start of his career with averages of 20.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.87 blocks and is shooting 59.6 percent from the field. He’s got double-doubles in seven of the eight games he’s played in this season.

Bynum’s got a big picture goal and a small one. The small goal is to be an All-Star. Big picture? To establish himself as one of the NBA’s elite centers.

“I think this is the year I have to prove that that’s what I am,” Bynum said. “If I can stay healthy and keep playing the way I’m playing that will happen itself.”

Health. It’s always been the operative word when discussing Bynum.

In 2007 he missed 46 games with a bruised bone in his knee and slightly dislocated knee. It eventually required arthroscopic surgery. Just when he was breaking out last season, he suffered a right medial collateral ligament tear that gutted 32 games out of his year. When he returned, he was just a shell of the player that had ripped through the league early in the season.

This season, an elbow injury knocked Bynum out for two games. He returned as fast as he possibly could, aware that his toughness as it relates to staying away from injuries, remains in question.

Ask Bynum anything about his present or future, and some derivative of the word ‘health’ is soon to follow in rapid-fire form from his lips.

“The biggest thing with me is just staying healthy,” Bynum said. “Whenever I’m healthy and on the court, I’m doing what I need to do. That’s the big thing for me. I’ve been doing a lot of yoga, a lot of track work in the summer to get my legs under me.”

What about being an all-star?

“That’s the main goal, becoming an All-Star,” Bynum said. “The second goal for me is just becoming that player that everybody thinks I can be, and stay healthy. That’s my second goal, just be healthy and play 80 games or something like that. That will be good for my career. That will be good for me.”

In a league that relentlessly promotes its star players, Granger is one of the last, true mostly unknown primetime players. Part of it lies in the fact that he toils for Indiana, a team still looking to find its way back among the elite in the Eastern Conference. Part of it has to do with the relative newness of his coming of age. Still, Granger has established himself among the NBA’s best.

“Danny turned a lot of heads last year,” said teammate Dahntay Jones. “And Danny’s going to continue to do it.”

“He’s an all-star,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “Which puts him in the top 25-30 players in the game.”

All that is fine with Granger, who was fifth in the NBA in scoring last season and is currently 15th in the league this season.

But he’s the big-picture type.

“It’s just a matter of putting Indiana back in the playoffs,” Granger said. “I’m trying to get more of a handle on being a leader, leading by example, leading with my voice. Things like that.”

Granger’s desire to be a leader is very much like Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, who has taken baby steps each of the past few seasons to be a leader in the Nuggets locker room. Anthony has established himself in that role this season. Granger is walking a similar path and is confident that his mental makeup will allow him to take control and adapt to a leadership role quickly.

“It kind of comes naturally, especially if it’s in your personality,” Granger said. “And it somewhat is in mine. I think it’s also a learning process, because if you’re going to lead you have to be doing a lot of things right yourself. When everybody is down you’ve got to be the one to pick everyone up. It’s a hard job.”

Right now, it’s a job that requires patience.

The Pacers are a relatively young basketball team, but more than that, they are an injured basketball team. Their first-round draft pick, Tyler Hansbrough, just played his first game for the team on Friday. Two of their best players, Troy Murphy and Jeff Foster, have been out with injuries. And Mike Dunleavy Jr., a player who has the ability to help take Indiana to the next level, has been dealing with a right knee injury for the better part of the last two seasons.

Without those players, the Pacers are a shell of what they hope to be.

“It takes a lot of patience,” Granger said. “You’re really not going to be able to do it by yourself. You’re going to need two or three really good players on your team to make noise in this league. It’s just a matter of time for us. We’ve got young players that are coming along. We don’t have all of our pieces yet. If you give us a little time, we’ll do it.”

It’s caused Pacers coach Jim O’Brien to lean on Granger even more.

“He’s a leader because he models what we want,” O’Brien said. “He’s an unselfish player. He doesn’t care if he scores. He cares that we win.”

PROBLEMS MOUNTING IN NEW ORLEANS

Panic time doesn’t come in November, or even December for that matter. But the 2-5 New Orleans Hornets have the look of a team in danger of completely falling off of promise it showed just two seasons ago.

The reason has been a slow erosion of the scoring punch on their roster. Particularly on the perimeter.

Just two seasons ago when it advanced to the Western Conference semifinals, New Orleans was a versatile, more powerful team on the perimeter. These were the players who made it happen: Bonzi Wells, Jannero Pargo, Morris Peterson, Bobby Jackson and a healthy – and slightly younger- Peja Stojakovic. Together, they accounted for 48.4 points, stretched defenses with long range shooting, and took the pressure off of Chris Paul and David West.

That’s no longer present.

Stojakovic and Peterson are still on the roster, but their effectiveness has diminished. Going into Sunday night’s game at the Lakers, the two were down a combined 7.9 points and were shooting a combined 38 percent. Pargo now plays for the Bulls. Wells is out of the NBA, and Jackson is retired.

No one else has stepped up full time. Bobby Brown has shown signs, but has been inconsistent thus far. As a result, Chris Paul has had to become much more of a scorer than he probably wants to be. Defenses hone in on him, West and Emeka Okafor. Two seasons ago, New Orleans averaged 100.9 points per game. Now it’s 97.5.

But defending has been just as big a problem. Opponents score 105 points per game against the Hornets, the highest average in the coach Byron Scott era. That’s 10 points more than even the 18-win season in 2004-05 season.

The concern is it doesn’t appear better times are ahead. Paul has already wondered what the team’s identity is, and it’s been a struggle to come up with an answer that isn’t “the team that can’t shoot and doesn’t play defense.”

It’s not panic time yet. But the red flags are multiplying on a daily basis.

JEFFERSON COMING AROUND, CURRY STRUGGLING

San Antonio’s Richard Jefferson and Golden State’s Stephen Curry had the same problem – getting acquainted and comfortable in their new surroundings.

Jefferson has started to show the form of being the player he has been his entire career – the one the Spurs wanted to see from the start after they traded for the athletic scorer in the summer. He’s averaged 18 points on 19-of-30 shooting (63 percent) in his last three games. But his start left something to be desired as he took some time to fit into what the Spurs are asking of him.

Curry’s issues are interesting ones. He essentially says he’s trying to play disciplined basketball on a largely undisciplined team. He made his mark in college as a deadly shooter, yet he’s shying away from looking for his shot so far in order to set teammates up. Golden State’s frantic pace doesn’t always allow for good defense, and he’s struggled on that end the most.
Teams have attacked him on defense and that continued on Sunday in Golden State’s loss at Sacramento. He’s mentioned that finger pointing and arguing about defensive assignments comes in bunches.

“When the ball goes in the basket, somebody didn’t do their job defensively, so everybody’s trying to point fingers while we’re in transition,” Curry told the San Jose Mercury News. “… By the time we get down court, there are 16 seconds on the shot clock and nobody knows the play.”

Great players play themselves out it, and the expectation here is Curry will. He’s too good not to. But, Curry, on many people’s shortlist for rookie of the year is going to take a bit more time to do so, if for no other reason than the combustible environment in Golden State is going to slow the process.

Memphis coach Lionel Hollins looks around the locker room and sees a bunch of players that could be his sons.

Literally.

He is coaching one of the youngest teams in the NBA. Memphis has 11 players that are 24 years-old or younger. And with that comes the ebb and flow and growing pains of players looking to find their way in league where experience is vital.

“Well, it’s not just basketball, it’s about life,” Hollins said. “It’s about growing up and being professional, handling your responsibilities, accountability, the maturity level. It’s really like when you have kids and you’re raising your kids because it’s not just what they do on the court. It’s the full package.”

Still, winning is the name of the game and the Grizzlies likely won’t do a lot of that this season. But the Grizzlies are fast and athletic and competitive.

Hollins wants his bunch to crawl before they walk.

“Forget winning, just learning how to play,” Hollins said. “You have to worry about learning the NBA game, NBA lingo, how the game is played, how it’s refereed, all the different rules. They have none of that. Then they don’t know the pro sets because they haven’t been in that setting long enough in college to understand the UCLA cut, hawk cut, 1-4 set, floppy set, all these sets. So you’re teaching everything that with more veteran guys they’ve gotten because they’ve been in the league. So, it’s a challenge every day.”

Memphis is off to a 1-2 start, with a loss to the Nuggets on Sunday night. They finished with 24 wins last season.

“The challenge is our focus can sometimes not be too good,” guard O.J. Mayo said. “But just for us to always stay focused together and understand we’re in it together and that if our team does well then all of will do well individually. So that’s the main thing, just our focus.”

HAPPY RETURNS?: It’s so far so good for Washington’s Gilbert Arenas, San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili and Boston’s Kevin Garnett after each missed large portions of last season with major injuries. Each made it through the first week of play with no setbacks. Agent Zero, who has played in just 15 games since 2007, has been particularly good, ranking in the top 10 in scoring at 28.5 points per game for the 2-1 Wizards.

The news isn’t as good for Milwaukee’s Michael Redd, who left his team’s game on Saturday night after feeling pain in the same left knee that caused him to miss the last 35 games last season with torn ligaments.

RADAR ALERT: BRANDON JENNINGS

Basketball is being slowly revived in Milwaukee, and Brandon Jennings is at the center of the resurrection.

Ok, it’s early.

But in just one week, the rookie point guard has taken the city by storm with function and flair. Jennings, who played last year with Lottomatica Virtus Roma in the Italian league, averaged 20.5 points, 6.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds last week. He nearly missed a triple-double in his debut, and his 24 points, three assists and three steals in a win over Detroit on Saturday had coach Scott Skiles raving about him to reporters.

“He came out in the third quarter and gave us a huge lift, got in a zone for a little while and showed us a whole other element to his game,” Skiles told reporters. “I told him I thought that was one of the most impressive first games I’ve ever seen by a rookie last night since I’ve been in the league.”

And Skiles, a point guard himself when he played, ought to know. He still owns the NBA record for assists in a game with 30.

CLEVELAND CONCERNS: The season started with two losses, but I wouldn’t worry much about Cleveland’s slow-ish start. Chemistry is the Cavs’ biggest issue, with the influx of new talent on the team. Shaq, LeBron, Mo Williams, Jamario Moon, Delonte West and Anthony Parker all have to learn to co-exist, and that doesn’t lend itself to winning right away all the time. Particularly when the opponent out of the gate is the Boston Celtics. But it will. The Cavs are too good and too well-coached to slip slide away.

After starting the season with wins against Utah and Portland, Sunday night’s game against Memphis was a small source of worry.

“Two big games, big big games,” guard Chauncey Billups said. “To start the season in a back-to-back situation and beat those two teams is huge for us. Now, you guard against playing Memphis who wasn’t one of the best teams last year and they are not one of our division foes. So you guard against having a letdown right now. But with the leaders we got, we’re not going to let down.”

And the Nuggets didn’t. The win on Sunday night pushed the Nuggets’ record to 3-0.

A look back:

Oct. 28: Nuggets 114, Jazz 105
Carmelo Anthony led five Nuggets in double figures as they pulled away from Utah in the fourth quarter for a season-opening win over a division foe. Anthony scored 30 points and the Nuggets got a big lift off the bench from rookie Ty Lawson with 17 points and six assists. Denver held Utah forward Carlos Boozer to 12 points on 3-of-14 shooting.

Oct. 29: Nuggets 97, at Portland 94
Anthony continued to be a stud, scoring 41 points – 19 in the fourth quarter – and the Nuggets survived a game Trail Blazers squad. Denver dug down and played great defense, holding Portland, which took 20 more shots, to 34 percent from the field. Chauncey Billups scored 22 points and Portland missed a chance to tie late in the game with free throws.

Nov. 1: Nuggets 133, Memphis 123
Anthony notched his second-straight 40-plus point game with 42, and the Nuggets survived a career-high 40 points from O.J. Mayo for their third win. Five Nuggets scored in double figures. Billups finished with 22 points and 12 assists. Nuggets coach George Karl passed Dick Motta for ninth place on the all-time coaching wins list with the victory. He has 936.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: CARMELO ANTHONY
Anthony is blistering hot out of the gate, scoring from all angles in the Nuggets’ first three games. Anthony averaged 31.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the start, and shot 53.6 percent from the field and 87.8 percent from the free throw line.

MOVE OF THE WEEK: BILLUPS AND LAWSON
Coach George Karl’s decision to play Ty Lawson and Chauncey Billups together paid huge dividends for the Nuggets. Billups got to play off the ball and be a scorer, which indirectly saves some wear and tear on his body. Lawson got to play point guard, which he’s being groomed to take over a few years down the road. Opponents found it difficult to guard both, and the Nuggets had two playmakers on the floor instead of just one at a time.

This summer, the Nuggets point guard worked with Memphis guard O.J. Mayo for a month in Las Vegas and came away impressed with one of the NBA’s brightest young stars.

“He’s a student,” Billups said. “That’s why I know he’s going to be great. He’s a student. He wants to learn. I was so impressed with that. A lot of players say that, but he means it.”

Mayo sought the help of Billups, and the veteran was more than willing to oblige.

“It meant a lot because in my mind he’s the best one-guard in our league, the best leader in our league,” said Mayo, selected third overall in 2008. “To get the opportunity to work with him day-in and day-out in the summertime to better my game; for him to take the time to help a young player to help his game, I got a lot of respect for him.”

Mayo made a strong push for Rookie of the Year honors last season, averaging 18.5 points 3.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists, finishing second to Bulls guard Derek Rose. According to Memphis coach Lionel Hollins, Mayo displays much of what Billups saw in him.

“No question,” Hollins said. “He loves the game, knows the history. He wants to know different things and he asks a lot of questions.

“I think every player should want to be the best that they can be, and whatever level that winds up falling on is just what your God-given talent says. But what he’s done is he’s done a good job of opening up his mind to be more than a shooter, more than just a scorer, trying the pass the ball, trying to attack the basket and create for other people and improving his defense. He’s growing in that aspect.”

And he’s growing in stature on the team.

Mayo, who will be 22 on Nov. 5, desperately wants to take a leadership role, and notes that Billups has given him a blueprint of how to get there.

“Just being able to be relied upon,” said Mayo, who scored a career-high 40 points against the Nuggets on Sunday. “Working hard everyday is the number one thing. Just working hard and bringing it everyday in practice, everyday in games vocally, energy-wise; just stay wired. And hopefully the guys that’s older than me and been here before me, I can encourage them to stay wired and play hard.

“And then just sacrifice. As leader of any group sometimes you may have to sacrifice what you have to make sure others are happy and well. So just sacrificing and making sure our main goal is to win.”

Billups sees the potential and is humbled by the respect Mayo pays toward him.

“That means a lot to me,” Billups said. “I spent a lot of time with O.J. this summer. He wants to work on his point guard skills and the mental part of the game. It means a lot for him to say that about me. Just his respect level of me and what I mean to him and the time I spent with him. It’s an honor. He’s one of the young studs in the game.”

If there was one knock on the Nuggets roster last season, it was the relative lack of size.

It still is.

Nene – 6-11 – is at center. Chris Andersen – 6-10 – is the team’s main shot blocker. The Nuggets have just one player that stands 7-feet tall, and that’s little-used Johan Petro. Last season, because of Andersen’s larger-than-life presence guarding the basket, the Nuggets were able to get away with being a tad undersized. They double-teamed when they needed the extra help.

Maybe that happens again this season, but because the Nuggets have had problems slowing down competent 7-footers this preseason, the men in the middle bearing watching closely in today’s and Friday’s games against the Lakers. Centers have fairly well eaten the Nuggets alive in the first five exhibition games. It’s not an alarming trend, but certainly one to keep tabs on.

Indiana’s Roy Hibbert – 7-2 – gutted the Nuggets’ interior defense for averages of 20.5 points, 10 rebounds and 6.0 blocks in the two games played in Taiwan and China, respectively. Hibbert shot 58.3 percent from the field. By contrast, Hibbert has averaged just 6.0 points 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in the Pacers’ other three games until last night’s 20 points and five blocks against Orlando.

Portland’s 7-footer, Greg Oden, who has had a very good preseason overall, scored 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting and added seven rebounds and two blocks against the Nuggets.

Now the Nuggets face L.A.’s Pau Gasol, who they had immense trouble guarding last season, and Andrew Bynum, who like Oden has had a coming out party in the preseason.

The reason it only bears watching and not worrying about is because the Nuggets haven’t made a huge point of taking any team’s big man out of the game during the preseason. And while some 7-footers have been highlighted, this extends to those just under that score and rebound well in the post, also.

“I agree that they had good games,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “But I think we have defensive schemes that we haven’t used in those games. Hibbert getting as many touches as he got was kind of a surprise to us. Portland going to Oden as their go-to guy in the fourth quarter; letting Nene play, we would have rotated him out when he got his fifth foul, rather than letting him go. Not having Nene down the stretch is a coaching ploy.”

“As we go into a strategy game there will be more attentiveness to, ok, Hibbert gets the ball here and we’re going to double him we’re going to front him, we’re going to do something different. We didn’t have strategy. We were just seeing how guys would react.”

Still, the Nuggets will again have to figure it out as the season goes along. Helping matters is the departure of Shaquille O’Neal from Phoenix to the Eastern Conference’s Cleveland Cavaliers. Houston will be without injured Yao Ming all season, so the Nuggets dodge two big bullets there.

But they have 24 games combined against L.A’s Gasol and Bynum, Minnesota’s Al Jefferson, San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire and Portland’s’ Oden. Not to mention two each against Cleveland’s O’Neal, Indiana’s Hibbert, Orlando’s Dwight Howard, New Jersey’s Brook Lopez. That’s a total of 32 games – almost 40 percent of their season against formidable post players.

Denver has to once again mask an undersized presence inside. Their success in that area could mean the difference between taking the next step to the NBA Finals or coming up short a second straight year.

If you think the Nuggets organization would sit back and watch this season collapse without doing something about it personnel-wise, you would need to rethink that.

By a long shot.

Though Denver is expected to be one of the best teams in the NBA this season, Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said the organization would not be hesitant to make a deal to improve the team if the circumstances warrant doing so.

“We’ll see where we’re at,” Warkentien said. “I think one thing, and history’s proven it, if we indeed have slipped and we get to that analysis, I think our group has proven that we’ll take the driver out and give it a big swing.”

In addition to accomplishing the priority of re-signing forward Chris Andersen, the Nuggets made a series of small moves during the summer to maintain the continuity of the team. Some fans were a bit antsy that the Nuggets didn’t bring in a big-name free agent ala San Antonio, which added Richard Jefferson or the Lakers, who added Ron Artest.

But the Nuggets have made big moves in the past. The last two being the Chauncey Billups trade last season, and the Allen Iverson trade two years prior to that. But Warkentien stresses that the Nuggets are not just satisfied right now, but confident with what they’ve done and where they stand in the Western Conference.

“We’re in a good spot,” Warkentien said. “If we get stuck, Big Bertha’s coming out. Big Bertha’s still in the bag. We’ve swung that stick before. Institutionally, we’re not afraid to make a move. We’ll pull the trigger.”

……

In the first few days of his first training camp in Denver, Chauncey Billups took a while before once again assuming a vocal leadership role.

“It’s funny, I talked with (Nuggets coach) George (Karl) a couple of days ago, and he was saying ‘Chauncey I need you to step your leadership up in camp,’” Billups said. “And I was telling him that this is all by design because I wasn’t in (Nuggets) camp last year. So my whole mindset was the first week or two weeks was just to fall back and not say too much to see how camp is. This is my first camp with ya’ll. I don’t know how you really do things. Let me just fall in line. Then I’m going to be me after that.”

He has been himself of late. And what Billups has seen thus far in practices brings a smile to his face.

“I’ve come from some great teams where our practices a lot of times were more intense and better than our games,” he said. “I thought that made our games easy. For us, and what we’re doing, we’ve been really having some great practices, competing really, really hard. Everybody challenging each other. The competitive spirit. That’s something that they haven’t seen around here. That makes you better.”

……

Charlotte’s Larry Brown, Memphis’ Lionel Hollins and Orlando’s Stan Van Gundy and their organizations have been fined a combined $215,000 for criticizing the new, replacement officials during the preseason.

Nuggets coach George Karl, speaking specifically about Brown’s fines, doesn’t want to be the next on that list.

“I’m thankful it’s him and not me,” Karl quipped. “They (the NBA) did say that the fines are going to be expensive and steep. And $120,000 for complaining about referees is high.”

……

Karl wants to see his team take the last three preseason games with a near-regular season attitude.

“We’re doing a lot of good things defensively,” Karl said. “Offensively I think we’re a little behind the curve,” Karl said. “There’s rationalizations and reasons that are somewhat acceptable. But I think we have to be pretty serious these next three exhibition games, play the right way.”

Last season’s emphasis on defense in training camp caused a lengthy stretch at the start of the regular season where the Nuggets were out of synch on offense. Karl does not think that will be an issue this season, but he’d like to see progress made before the regular season starts next week.

Interestingly enough, one of the red flags in Karl’s head has been his team’s relative lack of taking 3-point shots. Not making them. Taking them. The Nuggets are 18 of 60 from beyond the arc in the preseason. For comparison’s sake, Nuggets’ opponents are 39 of 115 from the 3-point line.

“For whatever reason I don’t think we’ve gotten the pace of the game the way we want to play, the way I want to play,” Karl said. “I don’t think we’re shooting threes because I don’t think we’re running hard, I don’t think we’re penetrating enough and I don’t think we’re passing enough. To be the aggressive team on almost every possession takes energy, takes concentration, takes a lot of focus. I think sometimes we get it, sometimes we don’t.”

LOS ANGELES – So there was the obvious. Free throws were the central issue in the Nuggets’ Game 1 loss. But there was also the 22-10 disparity in the Lakers’ favor in second chance points; the 17-7 Lakers’ edge in offensive rebounds; and the fact that Los Angeles held the Nuggets to seven fast break points, had more rebounds (46-37), had more assists (25-24), shot better from the 3-point line (44 percent to 42) and blocked more shots (9-8).

They out-detailed the Nuggets in nearly every way. But here’s the detail I thought was most poignant:

LAMAR ODOM ON ANTHONY CARTER

Carter’s throw away to L.A.’s Trevor Ariza late in the fourth quarter was the signature moment of the game. But quite frankly it’s difficult for me to lay the lion’s share of the blame at Carter’s feet. Lakers coach Phil Jackson’s use of the 6-10 Odom to guard the 6-2 Carter’s inbounds pass was a small detail that proved to be genius.

Carter struggled with Odom’s length. He had to lob a softball pass up to get the ball over Odom’s long arms and Ariza made a great break on the ball for the steal. At this point in the season, when there isn’t much difference between the teams it’s the little things that generally make the biggest difference. A taller Nugget inbounding the ball has an easier time getting more juice on the pass, making that play’s success rate higher. That’s a change Nuggets coach George Karl will likely make in the future, but he was out-dueled this time. Score one for Jackson.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

If you’re looking for signs of encouragement, the Nuggets provided a lot in a game that was decided at the wire. Anthony scored at will. The Nuggets executed well for the better part of the game. Kenyon Martin was active all over the court. They got to the rim all night en route to 46 points in the paint (Lakers had 40), and they were able to build a 13-point lead on the Lakers’ home court.

But.

Here’s where I get a little apprehensive about how just good the Nuggets chances to win the series really are. Of the two teams, I’d say the Nuggets played B+ basketball for the better part of the night. I’d say the Lakers played C- basketball until Kobe bailed them out in the end.

My point is, I think the Lakers have more room to improve from Game 1 to Game 2 – and they won. If Denver’s finish kept it from playing ‘A’ basketball, then there’s not much more to be seen from the Nuggets. Free throw shooting can obviously improve. But is Anthony really going to shoot 70 percent from the field overall and 80 percent from 3-point range in every game? No. The Lakers played listless basketball for the better part of the game and still found a way to win. They shot 41 percent from the field and still won. Just three players cracked 10 points, and they still won.

What happens if both get to their ‘A’ games? That’s a longer journey for the Lakers, which means we probably have only seen them scratch the surface. That’s a scary thought as the series moves forward.

CHAUNCEY’S REGRET

Of all of the lessons Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups has taught this season, after the game he lamented about the one he didn’t teach to young J.R. Smith, who is playing in his first NBA conference finals series. It’s interesting stuff.

With 3.2 seconds left, Smith was fouled before getting up a 3-point shot or passing to someone who could. He made the first free throw and missed the second intentionally to try and get the Nuggets a crack at making a game-tying shot. Instead, Bryant came away with the rebound on the intentional miss, he threw the ball high in the air down court and the game was over.

“It’s a tough play because we don’t have any timeouts,” Billups said. “And I know what they’re thinking…let somebody get (the ball) other than me. And don’t let them get a 3-point shot off. Foul them, put them on the free throw line. So in that position I wish I would have – I wish I could have got the ball.

“They did a good job. I couldn’t get it. But I wish I could have told J.R. that they were going to foul and when you see him come to foul, shoot the ball. Just little things that you learn through experience and through a lot of tough battles that he hasn’t been in yet.

“So that’s why I was disappointed that I – not that I didn’t get the ball, that I didn’t relay that knowledge to him, that savvy to him, where when (he sees) them coming to foul him, to try to go up and shoot the ball and get three shots. Just little things like that.”

Big game tonight.
Dallas, a preseason title contender, is now contending with Denver and Golden State for the final two playoff spots in the West. Of course, reigning MVP Dirk Nowitzki won’t play against Dener tonight at Pepsi Center – the guy is out indefinitely with a leg injury.
This got me thinking – when was the last time a team missed the playoffs one year removed from having the MVP? I tossed that question to the Dan Tolzman, the Nuggets’ rock star stat guy, who said it has happened just four times since the NBA began awarding the MVP in 1956. And only twice was the reigning MVP still on the roster.
1. Milwaukee’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won MVP in 1973-74. The next season, he started the season with a broken hand and missed 16 games. The Bucks went 3-13 (if as to validate the MVP’s value). Milwaukee missed the playoffs and next season, Kareem was on the Lakers and, yep, he won the MVP.
2. Houston’s Moses Malone was named MVP in 1981-82 and the Rockets were 46-36. The next season, he was on Philadelphia, and we won the dang MVP again. Meanwhile, the Rockets missed the playoffs, winning just 14 games.
3. You probably guessed this one. In 1997-98, Michael Jordan won the MVP and never played for Chicago again. The next season, the Bulls just weren’t the same without the greatest athlete ever.
4. Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett won MVP in 2003-04 (Minnesota’s one really good year). Then in 2004-05, the Timberwolves missed the postseason, even though Garnett averaged 22.2 points and 13.5 rebounds, without missing a game.

There have been some goods and bads in the past three Nuggets games. OK, the only good was in Milwaukee, when the senior citizen dance troupe performed the “Soulja Boy.”

It’s been a frustrating three games for the Nuggets. I do think there was some hope, even in the loss to the Pistons. There are no good losses, but Denver did play a great team tough. Imagine if they were blown out – at home – after those two losses to Chicago and Milwaukee?

But the Nuggets must – must! – win at least one of these next two (hopefully for them, they’ll win both), because they play the SuperSonics and Clippers.

Because, check it out – look what teams will come after those games: Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Utah and San Antonio again.

It’s easy to overlook Anthony Carter’s impact on this team when, nightly, Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony are scoring around 30 points each. But the point guard Carter is averaging a career-high 6.3 assists, and in the past two wins, he has notched eight assists each night.

He has embraced his role in the offense – pass first, pass second. He shoots seldom, though he has a knack for hitting tough shots in the fourth quarter.

He has been surprisingly efficient – his 3.1 assists-per-turnover ratio is 12th best in the NBA.

And my favorite stat about Carter – in games Denver wins, he averages 7.1 assists per game. In losses – 5.1.

LOS ANGELES — Tonight’s Nuggets-Lakers game (8:30 p.m., TNT) is wrapped in story-lines. Coby Karl could play against the team coached by his dad. Kobe Bryant has a penchant for burying the team coached by Coby’s dad. Both Denver and Los Angeles are jockeying for position in the ongoing Western Conference race. And the last time the two played, Allen Iverson scored 51 freaking points.

In that game, which Los Angeles won on Dec. 5 in Denver, the Lakers made 10 3-pointers. But Vlad Radmanovic made six of those, and he’s listed as out tonight.

We’ll see how Denver “bounces back” from the Timberwolves game. That’s a weird sentence to type, because they won that game on Saturday, but they barely sneaked by a really bad team. Perhaps this fear — that they can possibly lose to any team at any time — will fuel them on both ends of the court tonight.

And the game is on national TV, and Linas Kleiza often erupts on national TV (He must have thought last Thursday’s game, the 41 night, was on TNT’s Thursday lineup).

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.